National report cites climb in extreme poverty rates in areas including Springfield and Holyoke

File photo | The RepublicanTimothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said concentrated poverty is an issue faced for a number of years and one that is continually confronted by various organizations and the government.

Related link

SPRINGFIELD – A national report has found that the number of people living in extreme poverty, after declining in the 1990s, has climbed in the past decade and is especially concentrated in urban areas such as Springfield and Holyoke.

The new report, “The Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty: Metropolitan Trends in the 2000s,” was prepared by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, based in Washington D.C.

In the Greater Springfield area known as the Springfield Metropolitan Area, there were 12 census tracts identified, including seven tracts in Springfield and four tracts in Holyoke with “concentrated poverty” – areas having poverty rates of at least 40 percent. The remaining census tract was in a northern section of Amherst.

Each tract studied nationwide are areas that contain roughly 4,000 people on average, according to Brookings.

Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said concentrated poverty is an issue faced for a number of years and one that is continually confronted by various organizations and the government.

“I am not surprised that the intensity has increased, as the bottom has fallen out of the economy,” Brennan said. “Similarly, the kind of problems that folks of very low economic means face are things like foreclosures and poverty.”

It is also not surprising that concentrated poverty is in the urban core areas such as Springfield and Holyoke, as those are areas that include services for the poor, lower cost housing and greater access to public transportation, Brennan said.

The extreme poverty tracts in Springfield spanned sections of Brightwood, Memorial Square, McKnight, Old Hill, Six Corners, Lower Liberty Heights and the South End, according to report maps.

The tracts in Holyoke were described as the area generally bordered by Interstate 391, the Connecticut River and Beech Street.

Brennan said the extreme-poverty neighborhoods have likely intensified for a number of reasons including the weak economy and reduction in employment.

Some of the ongoing efforts to reduce poverty include programs to improve education, expand access to pre-school programs, and to provide greater health services and nutrition, Brennan said. In addition, there needs to be more diverse housing to provide mixed-income housing.

“There is lots of work underway,” Brennan said. “It’s not like everyone is throwing up their hands and resigned this will exist forever. Slowly but surely, there are efforts to drive these numbers down.”

Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research associate and lead author of the Brookings report, said that two economic downturns and falling incomes over the past decade “fueled the rapid growth in the poor population.”

“People who live in extremely poor areas shoulder a double burden,” Kneebone said. “Not only do they struggle with their own poverty, but their surrounding communities have fewer job opportunities, lower-performing schools, higher crime rates, and more public health problems.”

At least 2.2 million more Americans now live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty than at the start of the decade, according to Brookings. The increase in the Springfield Metropolitan Area was approximately 2 percent, according to statistics from Brookings.

Brookings, however, found that extreme-poverty neighborhoods rose more than twice as fast in suburbs, as in cities from 2000 to 2000-2009, according to its report. That was also the case in Greater Springfield where the rate of concentrated poverty rose by 4.2 percent outside the city.

There were 41,453 people in extreme poverty tracts in the Greater Springfield area including 25,142 in Springfield and 16,311 in surrounding cities and towns, according to Brookings.